The public today is concerned about their appearance, youth, and especially about their smile. There is much that has been accomplished in dentistry today that enhances the ability of the teeth to become white as the teeth once were in the persons youth. This can be accomplished by the use of crowns, veneers and bleaching. As a result, cosmetic dentistry has become very popular. Many people would like to have whiter and brighter teeth. As a result whitening or bleaching of teeth has become very common. However, all these means require a substantial investment on the part of the person.
The maintenance of the crowns and veneers, once they have been restored with porcelain, is slight because of the sealed surface of the porcelain. This is not true of natural teeth that have been whitened or bleached. The surface of bleached teeth reveals a surface that is full of cracks and crevices that is the result of the bleaching process. Therefore, these damaged surfaces are able to easily pickup pigments that are in our food and habits. Some of these pigments or staining products are; red wine, coffee, tea, lipstick, nicotine from smoking, food with any color. All these things have a tendency to stain and color the teeth that have been bleached. The solution to this is to re-bleach these teeth. The problem is that this will cause further damage to the previously bleached enamel and continual bleaching may lead to serious damage to the teeth and even result in the need for a root canal in order to save them.
Generally, the tooth bleaching process uses a form of hydrogen peroxide which whitens, and oxidizes the enamel of the tooth opening the enamel permitting it to be easily stained. In order to maintain their whiteness teeth must be periodically bleached. Repeated bleaching may potentially damage the enamel of the teeth. Often this damage creates pits and fissures in the enamel resulting in porosity that results in the teeth being more easily stained and discolored.
There have been coatings placed on teeth in an effort to provide a bacteria inhibiting film. One such protective coating is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,665,333 entitled “Methods, Compositions, and Dental Delivery Systems for the Protection of the Surface of Teeth”, issuing to Homola et al. on Sep. 9, 1997, which is herein incorporated by reference. Therein disclosed is a protective coating particularly adapted to provide a bacteria inhibiting film on the surface of a tooth. A transfer agent and barrier material is used to improve the adhesion of the protective coating on the surface of the tooth.
Other coatings or materials have also been applied to teeth. One such material is amorphous calcium phosphate or ACP which has been applied to teeth to remineralize the teeth. The use of a ACP to remineralize teeth is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,037,639 entitled “Methods and Compositions for Mineralizing Calcified Tissues” issuing to Tongue on Aug. 6, 1991, which is herein incorporated by reference. Therein disclosed is a method of applying a composition containing amorphous calcium phosphate or ACP to teeth to remineralize the teeth.
While the prior protective coatings are well adapted to provide a bacteria inhibiting film or remineralizing of teeth, they are not necessarily suitable for use in maintaining whiter teeth and protecting whitened teeth. Therefore, there is a need to provide a protective coating specifically adapted for maintaining the whiteness of teeth and protecting them from damage when they have been bleached.